Indulgence

It doesn’t necessarily hold that cabbies are only ever victims of passengers’ excesses. Quite often we are large beneficiaries of their unusual behaviour which, more often than not involves sex and substances.

For example, early this morning in the western suburbs I accepted a radio booking to the city. I mean, who in their right mind leaves home and heads to Kings Cross at 2am on a Tuesday morning in the middle of winter? Only those seeking further party supplies, it seems.

When I had all but given up after a crap shift, this unexpected fare coupled with a return hail from Rushcutters Bay to Rozelle reaped an extra sixty bucks, thanks very much.

Another example occurred over the weekend. Around 1am a thirty-something woman hailed me in Darlinghurst. “First we need to collect someone from a bar,” she requested, “then take us home to Drummoyne.”

Under normal conditions this fare would run to around $25. However after adding booze, kebabs and cocaine it can approach three times that amount.

Once outside the bar our pick-up, Jamie proved elusive to nail down. If she called him once she called him a hundred times as she competed with the background racket inside the bar. But given she possessed something he craved, he finally staggered outside and into the cab.

From what I could gather she had earlier obtained some cocaine and their arrangement was to meet at 1am and return to her place. This is where the communication problem arose for he expected her to simply deliver the coke to the bar then leave him to continue partying with his mates. Yeah, right.

After she reiterated her expectations he called to me, “Mate, turn the cab around, we’ve got to go back.” It was all about loyalty, he told her, as he couldn’t desert a mate in a bar. Thus he was obliged to bring him along, despite him being a total stranger to her. “Loyalty...", she queried, "then, where do I fit in?” Silence.

Of course she was royally pissed off, especially when back at the bar we repeated the same tiresome charade. “Come out and get in the fuckin’ cab”, Jamie frantically pleaded on the phone, over and over. Although the meter was ticking nobody cared as they were professional types who could easily afford the excess fare.

Once aboard the mate decided he was hungry so we next stopped at a kebab shop which was crowded with drunken revellers. This detour involved another fifteen minute wait during which time the couple in the back seat fell silent, interspersed with strained whispering.

This may have been due to the sound of Jamie practising his coke routine with some sharp clearing of the nostrils followed by deep snorting. Me, I just zoned out practising patience at their expense.

Finally, at her place, the meter approached sixty bucks so they flicked me seventy and left me in peace. By employing a little tolerance $25 became $70. That’s cab driving where sometimes the path of least resistance is the easiest and most profitable.

Comments

[BB]

I hope they didn't pay you with the bills they'd been snorting coke through!

[unique_stephen]

At least they are not vomiting in your cab

[Rainer the cabbie]

AH, the survival technic of a cabbie, don't get yourself involved and keep your eyes on the road. Sometimes it bothers me greatly, not what goes on, but the assumption these people have, that the stranger in the front seat will keep silent because they are paying you. I had a fare not so long ago, eastern suburb yuppy doing a drug run, first time obviously, who just had to tell me what he was up to. I barked at him that I really couldn't give a fu.., which shocked him a bit. After the 3 rd. drop off I thought I saw a wet patch in the front of his trousers. Bloody amateurs...

[Goldstein]

Reading this, I feel like Rip van bloody Winkle, a sleepy bastard waking up into a different world -is Sydney totally drug-f**ked now ? What are the coppers doing ? The same as the 80s - 90s ? ie, nothing ?

Is cocaine that prevalent now ? I remember when the spivs were flogging speed and calling it "coke", and most of the druggies in the East were on heroin.. It disturbs me when I read how acceptable drug use seems to be amongst "professionals" around the old town.. I am back in the big smoke in a few weeks, maybe I should sound out the DPP for a gig.. Adelaide is like Rookwood in so many ways -just poorer, with more abandoned mental patients..

Maybe even a bit of night driving with RSL.. the thing that strikes you when you come back to Sinny after a long absence is how it doesn't shut at sunset.. All the hedonists eating and drinking on King Street into the wee hours.. the vast suburbs stretching it seems a few hundred kilometres, the smell of the place - industrial, floral, funky, exotic..

Surry Hills / Redfern is my "manor", as Londoners would describe it, but I doubt I could afford a joint there anymore. Is there still a "Block" ? Or have the blackfellas been moved on by developers ? Is Taylor Square still there ? Or is it now just a slipway to an expressway ?

I shouldn't read this blog -it makes me so homesick..

Cue Tommy Leonetti...

[Rainer the cabbie]

"It disturbs me when I read how acceptable drug use seems to be amongst "professionals" around the old town.. I am back in the big smoke in a few weeks, maybe I should sound out the DPP for a gig.. Adelaide is like Rookwood in so many ways -just poorer, with more abandoned mental patients.."

Its all that Hydro that has grown like wildfire around Adelaide and South Australia. It makes people fairly loopy, and dare I say it, very aggressive when they come down. The "professionals" have always used drugs, no matter what decade. It just seems more obvious nowadays.

[GP]

I still stick by my earlier claim (that I believe, or at least hope) I made that drug users are drug users and dickheads are dickheads. There's plenty of correlation between the two, for sure, but little causation in my experience.

I imagine, though, that cab drivers get more of the dickhead variety and little else. We sympathise, at least.

I think there's a level of privacy that must be respected (i.e. people obviously on drugs who are, nevertheless, harmless, vs. those who are on it and preying on vulnerables... actually even that I feel uncomfortable saying, being a bit of a pseudo-libertarian ;) and those who think cabbies should dob in the slightest ill-deed are surely living in a dream world?

I know that wasn't straight-out suggested here, but by implication?

Still, I'm happy for those illiciteers (ahem, those selling) who can't even manage to control the urges for a short cab ride to be chucked in a cell for the night. That's surely harsh for a touch of fun up the nose, but hey, if they're conducting business from Adrian's back seat, a short jail spell seems like a reasonable tax on a pretty non-taxed industry, right?

[Rainer the cabbie]

Its not as if you have a drug experience every night in the cab, it comes occasionaly and one tolerates it as long as no harm is being done. As I said before what gets on my goat sometimes is how open people are about it, in my days it went on as well but at least people tried to conceal it. As to my "duty of care" eg. something illegal is happening in my place of business, I try to be realistic and understand the resources available to the cops and the legal system. If every Joe that snorts some coke or blows a joint is to be charged and arrested, half the states budget would have to be used on that. So you let it go and watch the meter.

[manly cabbie]

god i carn't wait to do a shift in the big bad city again the last 3 weeks doing shifts in the country town near where i live have nothing on sydney(even though most shifts in the country town i work make me more money than sydney)i j ust miss the big bad city.i'll look out for you adrian over the next 4 days at hernadez that is if you still hang out there.

[nathaniel]

I had a similar fare this past Monday night. Mum, Dad and bub (maybe 18nths). Both parents wore belts but nothing was done for the kid other than giving her to Dad in the back. At one house Mum even took the bub with her to the house! On the way back home bub wouldn't be happy so Mum took her and fastened the belt around them both and in the front to boot.

My blood boils at times like this unsecured children in cars, taking the kid to drug houses, I mean couldn't Dad have gone and Mum and bub stayed home ?? or is that being too sensible? and having a child in the belt with an adult AND in the front with the airbag.

Trouble is, they don't care and I needed the money cause it was Monday night.

Sad but true.